PRAIRIE GROVE -- New Prairie Grove head girls basketball coach Scott Reed steps into an established program with a strong tradition maintained by his predecessor Kevin Froud.
Froud resigned at the end of the school year after 18 seasons highlighted by winning the 2010 Class 4A State championship and a pair of State Runner-up finishes in 2011 and 2013. In February one of his players, guard Trinity Dobbs, reached the 1,000 point career milestone and that took Froud down memory lane as he reflected upon his tenure at Prairie Grove.
Froud first mentioned Ashton Abshier, daughter of long-time Tiger football coach Danny Abshier, as he started going through a lengthy list of impact players carrying the scoring load. Froud thought Abshier capable of producing 1,200 or 1,300 points but she blew out her ACL in the first game of her sophomore year.
A rash of injuries depleted Dobbs' supporting cast benching several starters including skilled post player Jasmine Wynos during Dobbs' sophomore and junior seasons. Prairie Grove couldn't overcome the sheer volume of injuries and didn't advance out of the district tournament in Dobbs' sophomore and junior seasons. Froud praised her for reaching a thousand points in 69 games.
"Kendra Coyle, she scored like 1,200 points. Justine Huber, she scored over 1,700 points. Lacey Beeks (Sugg), she scored about 1,100 points. They all played, I would say 20 or 30 more games than Trinity got to play. With those girls we made it to the state finals, made it to the state tournament and made it to the regionals on that end on those girls' careers," Froud said.
Abshier lost one season and that limited her production, too. Every girl except Emily Grant (68 games) ahead of Abshier on the all-time scoring list (from 2008-2022) played a whole bunch more games with Huber playing in 129 and Beeks-Sugg with 127 at the top of the list. Michelle Lumsargis played in 106, Coyle played in 101, Taylor Hartin played in 100, Mattie Hartin in 99, Camree Bartholomew in 90, Dobbs in 87, and Elysia Clement in 84.
"Kendra Coyle was another one and she had 1,200 points but she was also playing alongside a lot of good girls. We had a lot of good girls there, Elysia Clement, Julie Rutherford, Courtney Galloway, Michelle Lumsargis and Morgan Abernathy, they could all do some scoring. If they would have been playing and it would have just been them [as the primary scorer], they'd had over 1,000 points," Froud said.
Coyle played from 2007-2011 scoring 1,265 points and averaging 12.5 points-per-game. She holds down the No. 2 spot on the list with Beeks-Sugg next at No. 3 . Beeks-Sugg played from 2010-2014 scoring 1,183 points. Dobbs finished just below that with 1,180 points in 87 games after leading the Lady Tigers to a 4A North Regional Runner-up placing and into the Class 4A State semifinals. Her career average of 13.6 points-per-game is the best from 2008-2022 and she's fourth in total points.
"Justyne Huber, she played four years. She played her ninth grade, tenth grade, 11th grade and 12th grade, she made it to the finals three of those years and she ended up with 1,700 points in her career. Then after her it was Lacey Beeks and she played as a ninth grader, four years of varsity and she had over 1,100 points," Froud said.
Huber scored 1,708 points and likely ranks as Prairie Grove's all-time leading scorer in girls basketball with a career average of 13.2 points-per-game. She started on the 2010 state champions as a freshman and also played on two other teams to reach the state finals in 2011 and 2013.
"After that we had the Hartin twins, who were splitting up points with Parker Lopez and Camree Bartholomew that were all doing scoring. We've had a lot of young ladies who've been on very successful teams that got to play and do some scoring. I've been very blessed here to have young ladies and parents want their kids to act right and play hard," Froud said.
Asked if defenses were able to focus on Dobbs more than some of the other top scorers, Froud acknowledged that was true citing the game in which Dobbs hit 1,000 career points as an example.
"We set a couple of ball screens for her and they weren't helping. They were staying on her because they knew she was probably going to shoot it, so we were hoping to get some other people some shots off her penetration and you know we did. We just didn't make them at times," Froud said.
But even a sub-par game by her standards and a 41-36 loss to Gentry on Feb. 1 couldn't diminish the realization of a dream come true when Dobbs was called out to center court after the game and presented with a basketball signifying 1,000 career points scored in a Lady Tiger uniform.
"She's always got the best defender on her and they always know where she is. They've done that for the last three years. For her to do that [score 1,000 points] it's been a very, big compliment to her and her ability because every night going in they know they're going to guard her," Froud said.